You prepare reports on the production status of all departments. In the morning you mail those reports or give a printed copy to your managers.

And managers are supposed to review all reports. You made a detailed report thinking that your manager should aware of production status from cutting to finishing, the performance level of each department, each sewing lines and style wise cost per piece, and details of orders those are slipping from the deadline.

Ask yourself.

Do they need the detailed tables of thousands of data on each of 10 reports to read line by line? You know exactly what figures managers actually looked into. Show them those data only.

Normally managers just look into key figures. Even if they want to read all reports they can’t do that because it would consume a lot of time. Instead of reports, they would prefer to call you and ask for reasons when they find any issues in the report.

So, why you are wasting your time making long reports and wasting papers for printing those long reports daily morning?

In this post, I will show you how to make your production reports effective as well as more interesting. You can make a short report using one of the following methods -

First Method: Instead of 6 to 10 page reports prepare one page report with important data and numbers.

Second Method: Just make graphs of each analysis and status report and write down key issues that need to be looked into urgently by higher management.

Third Method: Prepare report dashboard including all production reports. I call it KPI Dashboard. See the sample KPI dashboard in the following image.

Instead of printing multiple reports make one dashboard and send the dashboard via e-mail. Such keyboard displays everything that need to be communicated.

KPI Dashboard
(Click on the image to enlarge)

On the above dashboard, I have included 6 graphs. From these graphs, you can check the production and quality status and factory performance.

How I made this Dashboard

I have made one template for data entry and graphs on excel sheet. Collected data required for following reports and entered into the template.

KPI-II: Line wise machine productivity and efficiency figures of the last production day

KPI-III: Line wise production and WIP reports

KPI-IV: Style wise production of all lines

KPI-V: Quality Report (Sewing and Finishing DHU)

KPI-VI: Earned Vs Make-up% of the sewing operators

Once data entered, I get all graphs on the excel template. Graphs are then copied in a Powerpoint slide. My dashboard is ready.

Similar ways you can create graphs for your key reports. Take screenshots of the graphs. Prepare one powerpoint slideshow (pps format). Or you can show graphs on the spreadsheet (excel sheet) in a separate worksheet. A spreadsheet is a better option as you have all information the same location/file. When someone needs to see reports in details can open tables for respective reports.

Write me if you have any question related to the KPI dashboard.

I have written an eBook on KPI titled 'Garment Maker's KPIs {Why measure and how to measure}(eBook)'

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Prasanta Sarkar is the editor and founder of OnlineClothingStudy blog. He is a Textile Engineer and a Master in Fashion Technology from NIFT, New Delhi. He has authored 5+ books in garment manufacturing technology field. Learn more about him and connect with him on Facebook and LinkedIn